Newsletter

Ready for disaster: '70 Tornado prepared city to handle problems on wide scale

Published: Sunday, March 07, 1999

In the worst-case scenario, the year 2000 computer bug might strain city utilities, it might kill phone service and it might wreak havoc on personal finances that's nothing many Lubbockites haven't experienced before.

In May 1970, a tornado destroyed Lubbock neighborhoods, cut off utilities and killed 26 people. The havoc wreaked by the twister taught people to lean on each other for help and to prepare for disaster.

And after the tornado, emergency coordinators around the country looked to Lubbock as an example of how to handle a disaster. The city created a film about the tornado response, which has been used as an example of what to do during a crisis.

''It turned out that they had a pretty good plan for dealing with disasters at the time,'' said James McDonald, director of the Institute for Disaster Research at Texas Tech. ''I would expect them to be even better prepared than in 1970.''

Before the tornado hit, Lubbock emergency coordinators, McDonald said, had worked out a disaster plan. They identified all key players, made sure they knew their jobs and made sure they could communicate.

Bill Payne served as director of civil defense for the city during the tornado. He said the key to the city's effective response was having an emergency operations center where officials could meet and prioritize responses to problems.

The city learned two things: ''You never have enough communications equipment,'' he said, and ''you never really have enough human resources.''

Ken Olson works as Lubbock's current emergency management coordinator. He said the plans Payne used to deal with the tornado are the basis of his plans to deal with a potential year 2000 computer crisis or any other disaster.

''You will never get through planning,'' he said from an emergency planning workshop in Austin.

The 1970 tornado prompted many people in Lubbock to better prepare for disaster. People installed tornado cellars and debated what emergency communications system Lubbock should install.

The Avalanche-Journal reported in 1971 that damages to the city's water pump station from the tornado prompted Methodist Hospital to dig its own well.

Covenant Health System, a marriage of Methodist and St. Mary Hospital, has three emergency wells that can be used in case computer glitches damage water distribution, said Eddie Owens, director of public relations for the hospital. The well water isn't treated for drinking, but it could be used in the hospital's cooling and sewage systems, he said.

Olson said the most important part of Lubbock's emergency plan and what helped Lubbock deal efficiently with the tornado is giving each official a job, and making sure each knows the job.

''You can develop a plan, but to carry it out as a team and to work as a team is the most important part of the process,'' Olson said.

In 1970, Lubbock citizens included themselves in the team.

Larry Wilson, executive director of the Parkway Neighborhood Center, first volunteered at the center the day after the tornado after spending the night at First Baptist Church, where he was treated for a concussion.

Wilson was a high school senior when the tornado hit. He said he was driving home from his part-time job down Avenue Q when his car started ''rocking and shaking.''

Wilson got out of his car to find shelter, and the next thing he knew he woke up in the hospital. He said the winds must have caused him to hit his head.

The next day he volunteered at the center to help people in the area who lost their homes, he said. He's worked there full-time for 20 years.

The disaster, he said, ''brought the total community, whether they be black, white, brown, whatever, it brought them together.''